Two Lives, One Love
by Maileesaeya
Summary: When she was young, Kagome met a mysterious woman. Years later, she falls into a well and begins searching for something. In the process, she learns just who the woman she met really was. Kagome x Kikyo, one-shot. May continue if people want me too.


**Author's Note: My first crack at a one-shot. I hope everyone enjoys it! And this is a Kagome x Kikyo, so don't go criticizing that! Anyways, this is just sort of a weird idea that occurred to me, but I liked it, so I wanted to see what people thought of it.**

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Kikyo felt like her body was being controlled by some outside force as she exited the building that had materialized over the Bone-Eater's well. She was surprised by what she saw outside, but her body ignored it, and the pulse of power she sensed brought her mind out of its stupor, and she focused on the source.

It was a young girl, playing about the enclosed grounds of the shrine Kikyo now stood in. The girl was laughing cheerfully, and Kikyo felt like she was looking at a younger, more carefree vision of herself. She could practically taste her own presence upon the soul of the young girl.

Kikyo's eyes were drawn away from the strikingly familiar face to the girl's abdomen, just below her heart, where a familiar power pulsed.

The Shikon no Tama. But how…?

Kikyo's body again moved on its own as she walked over to the girl, who stopped playing and stared up at her. Kikyo crouched down, bringing herself to the child's level, and she reached her hand out to the girl. She leaned into Kikyo's touch, and Kikyo instinctively knew what to do next.

"If ever the time comes and you have need of me, call to me, and I shall come."

"I understand."

Their voices were barely more than a whisper, but the light flowing in their bodies—invisible to the eyes of ordinary humans—showed clearly that the power binding them was very real. The girl leaned into Kikyo's touch.

"What's your name?" she asked. "Kikyo. And yours?" "Kagome." "Well then, Kagome, this is farewell. Perhaps we'll meet again, one day." "Yes, I would like that very much."

With that, Kikyo stood straight and began walking backwards before turning her back on Kagome and reentering the well house. There, she jumped into the well and allowed the light to engulf her, returning her to her home.

«--Eight Years Later--»

Everything was familiar to her.

She walked through the forest, uncertain as to where her feet were carrying her, but knowing she was going wherever it was she was supposed to be.

She had to know why. She didn't know what it was that she wanted to know the reason for, but she had to know. She could feel her heart breaking. Agony clutched at her chest from her uncertainty. She needed to know _why_ he had done it…

Kagome broke into the clearing that surrounded the Sacred Tree. She walked closer and looked up. The beginning of the answer was there. A silver-haired, dog-eared boy pinned to the tree by an arrow.

_Her_ arrow.

The memories rushed back to Kagome in a blur and the seals on her powers shattered. She stood, almost dumb-founded for a moment, and then settled herself in.

She'd changed. For better or worse, she couldn't know.

But now, she could get her answers. She could learn why Inuyasha betrayed her, despite how much she had loved him, and how much she had thought he loved her in return.

She could sense the villagers approaching behind her, and the aura of a miko—a relatively minor one. Pathetically weak compared to herself, but that didn't matter.

It was Kaede. Her sister. A part of her missed Kaede, but the greater part of her knew that she was here only to gain the answers she sought.

She smiled, somewhat cynically. She heard the twanging sound of bows being loosed, and she summoned her kekkai, effortlessly deflecting the weak attacks. Other than that, she ignored the villagers. Instead, she lifted her open hand, stretching her fingers towards the sleeping half-demon.

"Awaken, Inuyasha," she said, her voice uncharacteristically cold and emotionless. She couldn't be herself here. She couldn't wait to leave. Inuyasha slowly opened his eyes, roused by her command, and then, after shifting his head a little, looked down at her. Hatred and love radiated from his eyes, and that made everything so much more painful for her.

"Kikyo. What do you want?" he sneered. She didn't let him see how that affected her, and buried her emotions under a wall of iron will around her heart. She squared her shoulders.

"Only one thing," she said gently. "Your reason. Why, Inuyasha, did you betray me?"

"What the hell are you talking about, hn?" he responded. "You're the one who betrayed me." She knew that wasn't the case. She loved him enough that she could never betray him the way he had betrayed her. She betrayed no emotion when she responded.

"I was foolish," she said. "Weak. I allowed myself to find love with a half-demon whose only true desire was to become a full demon. It was my own mistake, I suppose." She closed her eyes, thinking.

"What the hell, wench?" shouted Inuyasha. She was so surprised by the way he addressed her that she opened her eyes to look at him again. "I was ready to become human, till you tried to kill me!" She contemplated that. She wouldn't have believed him, normally, but a part of her, the still innocent part, wondered what truth there might be in his words. His actions regarding the Shikon no Tama were admittedly puzzling. She laughed as she threw her hand out again and the arrow sealing Inuyasha in place shattered.

"Go then," she said. "Find the one you hate so much, the one who attacked you and turned you against me. We shall not meet again, Inuyasha, and you shall live your life, forever nothing more than a half-breed _dog_." She sneered the last part at him—something that felt uncomfortable in her soul—and turned away, confident he couldn't harm her, and wouldn't harm the village.

She made her way back to the well. She sensed Inuyasha approaching her, but deflected him with her kekkai. She sensed the villagers following her, and felt the weary probe of her sister.

When she reached the well, she sensed the presence of Mistress Centipede, the one who had dragged her into the well when she went to get Buyo, the family cat. She looked up and smiled when the youkai emerged from the trees, its intent obvious.

"Give me the Sacred jewel!" screamed the youkai. Her smile unwavering, she raised her hand toward the demon and released a blast of purifying energy. Mistress Centipede's body turned to dust, and the girl took a moment to marvel at how strong, yet weak, her powers felt. Then, she jumped into the well.

Light engulfed her body as the magic transported her back to her own time.

«--One Month Later--»

Kagome sat in the branches of the Sacred Tree from which she released Inuyasha so many centuries in the past. She stared up at the sky, her eyes contemplative.

She could never forgive Inuyasha. Even if he discovered what really happened—though she was still convinced Inuyasha betrayed her—the centuries she had spent fighting her way out of Yomi were far too painful to ever forgive him. After a month of thinking on everything, she knew she harbored nothing but hatred, if only for somehow opening her up enough to make her fall in love with him.

Some of that hatred was directed at herself, for she was the one who allowed him the chance to open her up like that. Still, the hatred had been stemmed, at last, and she now simply felt a fool for allowing it.

After returning, she'd managed to convince her family that she'd lost consciousness when she hit the bottom of the well, and that they simply hadn't seen her because of where she lay and how deep the well was.

After that, she'd thrown herself into several things: her schoolwork, the study of the shrine history, and learning the depth of what had happened to her.

Leaning back against the tree, Kagome sighed.

_Kikyo?_ She called out in her mind.

_I'm here, Kagome._ Came the response of her past incarnation, and a slight smile creased Kagome's lips.

_What do you think of all this?_

_It's strange. We are one and the same; yet, still, even though we share all memories and thoughts, you insist on speaking to me. Or rather, speaking to yourself._ Kagome laughed mentally. _What?_

_It's just,_ thought Kagome. _In a way, I'm suffering from multiple personality disorder. And, there really isn't any point to this… 'conversation', but I enjoy it. I enjoy feeling like we're two separate people._

_Why?_

_You already know the answer to that._

Kagome paused in her internal conversation as she considered the course it had taken. She really was narcicistic, wasn't she?

_I love you, Kikyo._

_And I love you, Kagome._

Sighing, she sat up from the tree and left for school.

«--Two Years Later--»

It had been two years. Two years since she fell into the well. Everyone had noticed the change in her, though nothing as profoundly as the initial change upon recovering her memories of the Sengoku Jidai.

Slowly, she'd fallen into a state of depression. She'd only been able to bring up her internal conversations a few times, and they'd become increasingly more alien to her. She'd longed for the touch of the one she loved, but what could she truly do when that person was actually herself?

She'd tried dating a few times, both boys and girls, but had found it to mean nothing to her. Now, she was the same age as when she had once died. Everyone had gathered at the shrine for her seventeenth birthday, but she cared for none of it.

At least, until a group of demonic entities surrounded them. Excusing herself from her own party, she'd walked a little away from the others before Inuyasha—much older than when she had last seen him—showed up.

"Kikyo," he said. She nodded politely to him.

"Inuyasha," she said, allowing the disgust to lace her voice. He stepped back, looking as though someone had slapped him.

"Kikyo, wait," said Inuyasha, reaching out to her. "Please, listen to me. I wasn't the one who killed you. Neither of us betrayed the other. It was a half-demon named Naraku. He's dead now. I killed him. Please… give me another chance." She glared at him.

"You had your chance, Inuyasha," she sneered. "Now take your motley collection of demon allies and get out of my sight. I love someone else. I never loved you—I am not Kikyo. And I can't be with the one I love anymore than you can. I wish I could. Now, get away from me, or I _will_ purify you, hanyou."

Inuyasha looked as though she'd just assaulted him. She felt something, power, surge within her, and tried to understand. Was she losing control? No, that didn't make sense. What was…?

Then she felt her heart stop beating for half a second, then pick up the pace at double speed. Only it no longer felt like her heart. She could've sworn she felt her heart leave her body, only for another to take its place.

And she could still feel the tug of her heart, pulling her to where it was now located.

Looking down the steps of the shrine, her eyes fell on a young woman her own age, wearing an identical kimono, with the same face and eyes as Kagome's own.

Their eyes met, and they both knew instantly. Letting out small yelps of joy, they ran towards each other, Kagome down and Kikyo up the steps, embracing each other midway, without another care in the world.

Not for the half-demon and his hanyou allies watching them.

Not for Kagome's family and friends, staring down at them with dumbstruck expressions.

Each of them now had their own world, and in each world was only a single thing: their other, the one who shared their mind, their body, their soul, their heart.

And, of course, their love.

_**Fin.**_

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**AN: Well, I hope everyone enjoyed that! It was pretty fun to write, and I think the description for the internal dialogue reflects well on what it really would've been like. Looking at it, it's possible that I might write a sequel/continue the story, exploring more of what happens afterwards. If enough people think I should, then I will, otherwise, I'll just focus on the other things I have to deal with. Onegai! Please review! Ja ne!**


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